BASF plans to invest about €90-million to build a world-scale plant for the production of high performance resins and electrocoat (e-coat) in Shanghai, China, to support growing demand for automotive coatings in Asia Pacific.

“The continued investment in our infrastructure and capacity demonstrates our strong commitment to supporting our customers’ growing business in the automotive market in Asia Pacific, particularly in China,” said Peter Fischer, senior vice president for coatings solutions in Asia Pacific.

The new resin and e-coat plant, scheduled to begin production in the second half of 2015, will be located adjacent to another automotive coatings plant on which BASF started work earlier this year. The close proximity of the two plants will allow for more synergies and efficiency, the company noted.

BASF described e-coat as “a critical coating layer in automotive production, protecting a car’s surfaces, edges and cavities from corrosion, as well as being the base for applying subsequent paint layers.”